Vietnam emerges as major tourism market for countries

The outbound tourism grew roughly 20 percent per year in the past five
years and Vietnam has become the source markets of the tourism industry
of many countries. The Saigon Times reports.

To woo
Vietnamese visitors, many regional countries are working hard to promote
their images and launch a series of incentive programmes including
relaxing visa requirements, offering discounts and giving greater
tourist support.

Not long after the Republic of
Korea reduced the visa fee from 30 USD to 20 USD and loosened procedures
for proving financial capability to attract more visitors from Vietnam,
Turkey has introduced a new policy on its entry procedures.

Turkey provides an e-visa service for Vietnamese tourists entering the
country for travel or business purposes. Vietnamese travelers having
round-trip tickets of Turkish Airlines, valid passports and Schengen
visas issued by EU states or members of the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development only need to check out the website of
Turkey’s migration agency to provide information and pay by credit card
to print out their e-visa.

Japan earlier announced
to issue multi-entry visa for Vietnamese tourists instead of
single-entry visa. At a meeting with the Vietnam National Administration
of Tourism (VNAT) last month, representatives of Japan’s tourism
promotion agency said Japan is looking to lure 200,000 Vietnamese
visitors by 2015 compared to the 55,000 in 2011.

Nguyen Quy Phuong, head of the Travel Division under VNAT, believes that
Japan’s target is achievable given numerous promotions that are being
offered in Vietnam by the Northeast Asian nation’s tourism industry.

The Japanese tourism promotion agency and companies have organised
plenty of programmes for Vietnamese firms and media to study Japan’s
tourism and have rolled out big discounts for customers. At present,
prices of tours to Japan have been slashed by up to 10 million VND.

Like Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia who raced to apply multiple
incentives to woo Vietnamese visitors before, other foreign destinations
like the Republic of Korea have started adopting attractive policies to
boost their tourism sales.

Korean tours offer
incentives for Vietnamese MICE groups, including discounts of 10-15
percent for visitors travelling by themselves and those using services
at resorts and entertainment areas in the winter season.

Meanwhile, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council said it will
support air tickets and hotel fees or even cash for organisations or
enterprises taking customer groups to the territory for healthcare
services associated with travel purposes.

Tran Xuan
Hung, Director of Viking Company, said many nations have taken prompt
actions to win the hearts of Vietnamese travellers. For instance, he
said, when Viking representatives went to Buhtan to make surveys for
arrangements of a caravan tour set for the upcoming Lunar New Year
holiday, they were extended a warm welcome by the local tourism
authorities.

Tourism companies in Ho Chi Minh City
agreed that thanks to strong promotions, the number of Vietnamese
travelling abroad has grown sharply. The RoK saw a 20 percent pickup in
Vietnamese tourist arrivals in January-September. The number of
Vietnamese visitors to Japan is expected to double to around 100,000
this year.

Although there is no official information
on the number of Vietnamese travelling overseas annually, the Vietnam
Tourism Association estimates the annual growth rate at 20 percent in
recent years despite protracted economic difficulties.

In 2012, some 3.5 million Vietnamese travelled abroad with total spending of roughly 3.5 billion USD.-VNA